The Google Chrome Web browser behaves much differently than other browsers such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. By default, the Chrome browser creates an entirely separate operating system process for every single tab or extra extension you are using. If you have several different tabs open and a variety of third party extensions installed you may notice five or more processes running simultaneously. There are several different ways to disable each process or to prevent Chrome from opening so many processes in the first place.
Normally when a Web browser experiences a problem or uses up too much memory the entire program has to close, which means you lose anything you were working on and all your tabs will shut down. By separating out each tab and extension into a separate process, the browser can remain active even if a single tab has to close. Using multiple processes also results in faster surfing speeds as computer memory is allocated only to the currently open tab.
Chrome Task Manager
The Google Chrome Web browser has its own built-in task manager window to list each process currently running. If you need to see each process Google Chrome is using, access the task manager by clicking the wrench icon in the upper-right corner of the screen, selecting "Tools" and then clicking "Task Manager." Click the name of any tab or extension you want to shut down and click the "End Process" button.
Windows Task Manager
Because all the Google Chrome tabs currently open have their own separate process, each of the processes will appear in your operating system's task manager window. To access the standard Windows task manager screen, press the "Ctrl," "Alt" and "Delete" keys together and click the "Start Task Manager" button. Scroll down to the first process listed as "Chrome.exe" to find the multiple active Chrome processes. Click the process you want to close and choose "End Process."
Process Per Site
If you don't want Chrome to open a new process for every single tab, its possible to set the browser to create only a single process for multiple tabs all browsing the same site. To change the setting, right-click the Google Chrome icon in your "Start" menu and select "Properties." Click the "Target" text box and scroll to the end of the line. Insert the phrase "--process-per-site" after the end of the text currently in the box and click "Apply."
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